


Rough Hands and Battered Minds

by Anonymous



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men (Original Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bonding, DOFP Changes, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Hopeful Ending, Hurt Erik Lehnsherr, Logan is tired of Charles' shit, M/M, Non-Canon Relationship, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, They'll always have Paris, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:15:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29885814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Logan's said it before and he'd say it again: he didn't lie down on that slab and let Kitty send his consciousness back here just to play couple's therapist to the Professor and Magneto.And yet, that's the exact position he'd been placed into as soon as Erik and Charles were placed in the same aircraft.If Charles isn't going to keep this alliance together, then Logan would have to do it himself.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Logan
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11
Collections: X-Men Rare Pairs 2021





	Rough Hands and Battered Minds

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [DoctorMagenta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorMagenta/pseuds/DoctorMagenta) in the [xmenrarepairs21](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/xmenrarepairs21) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> After Pentagon rescue in DOFP Charles hides in his hotel room to sulk in silence and Hank goes with him to pat him on the back. Logan has an unwanted realization that if he wants their mission to succeed, he'd better go to Erik before he spirals out of control.  
> Touch starvation issues please and general fallout of being held in a solitary confinement for 10 years. Also Logan bonding with Erik over having a shitty life filled with traumas.
> 
> So, I hope that this covers what you wanted! I do enjoy touching more on Erik's PTSD and how it should've been looked at.

Logan's said it before and he'd say it again: he didn't lie down on that slab and let Kitty send his consciousness back here just to play couple's therapist to the Professor and Magneto. And yet, that's the exact position he'd been placed into as soon as Erik and Charles were placed in the same aircraft. 

Unfortunately, changing locations didn't make the problem fare any better. 

He was going to make it official right now that he hated goddamn time travel. He's never doing it again. 

While this angst-ridden and walking Professor already skulked off to his hotel room for the night with un-furry McCoy yipping at his heels, Logan was having an expensive glass of the good stuff at Charles' expense. Erik had silently gone off to his own room.

It was on his fifth glass of scotch that Logan had the unfortunate problem of realizing three, supremely unfortunate things.

  1. McCoy was incapable of doing anything but enable the Professor, both in mutation-limiting drugs and his denial that he's being a fucking imbecile full of nothing but self-pity.  
  

  2. Erik Lehnsherr was barely holding it together on the plane not just because of anger, but because he's spent a decade trapped in isolation without his powers or a single soul to interact with, and  
  

  3. Logan was officially the only person in this group that was going to do whatever it takes to help them get their shit together because this version of Charles Xavier has lost the ability to preach forgiveness and family.



Professor was going to be in for a rude awakening when the future's all fixed. 

Logan pushed off his stool and marched to the elevator with hopes that his resignation of these facts wasn't done too late. He'd say that it was only, what, thirty minutes since they got to the hotel? But he knew more than anyone that a helluva lot could happen in that relatively short amount of time. 

Especially when it involved someone who Logan related to on a far more personal level than he wanted to admit. 

The mutant strolled down the hall when the doors opened and went to the room Charles assigned Erik. It was on the furthest the Professor could get from the metal bender. Another obvious sleight that wasn't going to help or fix things between these two knuckleheads. 

"I'm really fucking doing this," he muttered under his breath. Then he raised his fist and made an effort to bang it on the door in a gentler manner than he would normally consider. "Erik? It's Logan." 

Color him unsurprised that Magneto didn't respond urgently to his call. It might be for more reasons than usual this time, however. 

And the sudden possibility that Erik could be in there having some kind of panic attack was an unsettling thought.

He was ready to give knocking one more try when there was a click of a lock and the door was opening. Erik gazed at him impassively from the crack in the door but Logan saw everything he needed to. A faint tremor, a sheen of sweat on Erik's forehead the man didn't wipe off, the sickly tint to his skin. 

And worst of all, the wild look still settled in Magneto's piercing eyes. 

"The survivor," Erik greeted, dry and mocking. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" 

Logan wasn't a guy who picked his words carefully. Shit, he was the guy who didn't like a lot of talking, period. So today has only proven that he needed a damn medal when he gets back to the future. 

He kept his body free of any tension so that he wouldn't put the other man on-guard and shrugged. "I was having a drink downstairs and thought I wasn't the only person who might want one."

"So you've come to offer me a nightcap?" Erik asked, trying for amused but the surprise in his eyes betrayed him. That went into another checkbox for Logan; if Magneto couldn't keep his mask on then the guy was in a lower place. "Did Charles turn you away?"

"I didn't ask him," Logan responded.

Erik's surprise showed further with the twitch of his brow as if he was fighting to not raise it. "Is that so?" 

"Beast's got him taken care of. It's not exactly the kind of party I'm into, if you know what I mean."

That was enough to get something else from Erik; a ghost of a smile twitched some life into the man's face. Barely there before it was gone but enough to assure Logan that he was getting somewhere. 

"A drink," Erik said, then stepped back and let the door fall open as he walked away. Logan shut the door with a soft click behind him, moving into the room with a cautious glance around the space. 

Erik didn't acknowledge the disaster around him as he walked over to the minibar. It was like a tornado had blown through; several areas of metal had been crushed or thrown around, shattered glass and mirror littered the floor, lamps were askew with their heads bent so that the light wasn't as poignant.

Clearly, Logan missed out on that panic attack already. 

If Erik wasn't going to mention it then Logan wouldn't either. This was going to be like some kind of trapeze act to not make the guy shut down any further or trigger something worse. 

He joined the taller mutant at the bar where two glasses were readily filled with whiskey. Erik slid one closer to him before picking up the other and tilting it in Logan's direction.

"Cheers," Erik murmured, bemused, and took a sip. 

Logan's eyes didn't leave him as he raised his own glass. "Cheers," he returned. He didn't swallow down as much as he would like but the burn was still a good enough treat. 

The rigidity of Erik's form was familiar not in that it was natural for the mutant but that Logan's seen it in himself and fellow soldiers. Erik was a shell of himself and Charles' refusal to see it did not make it disappear. 

Logan didn't do the touchy-feely thing often. He did it for Rogue before they put her down in the husk of Cerebro. He did it for Storm when they both sought out comfort in a familiar soul. Chuck was the only confidante he had and McCoy, well, they were best friends for reasons that didn't involve touching or constant emotional flagellation. 

"I liberated some camps in the war," Logan said, staring down into his glass. He could hear the protest of Erik's drink in a tight hand and feel the man's eyes landing on him. 

"You don't look any older than I," Erik commented.

"All part of my mutation. One of the organic parts, at least."

When he looked at the other mutant, Erik looked pensive, his eyes calculating as he worked to figure something out. Logan didn't rush him. 

It was bad to rush, as much as that was his usual thing. 

Logan grabbed a couple more bottles from the bar and refilled their drinks when he noticed they were empty, brushing Erik's hand with his in the process. There was a sharp intake of breath as Erik's hands stopped trembling but the mutant didn't pull away. 

He remembered what it was like to experience touch for the first time after being warded off and kept from a compassionate hand.

"What was it that you survived, Logan?" Erik finally asked when Logan moved his hands back to his own drink.

"I survived a man named Stryker." This time, he didn't spare the whiskey, he downed it in one go as he fought the fear that came with his own recollections. 

_ Stay calm, yeah, like that was possible _ .

"So we were both at the mercy of our Creators."

Erik wasn't so far off. "I was at the mercy of a commander I thought I could trust," Logan replied. 

The other mutant could understand betrayal. Logan knew that. Not every order came with well-intentions. Most came from abominable curiosity, cruelty, and fear. 

Erik's next question came out quiet, as if he somehow didn't want anyone else to hear it. A willing show of his current vulnerability. "How far did your commander go?"

Logan flexed his hand, thinking about the exposed bone claws that were underneath this body's skin. "The push of adamantium throughout my body. Siphoning of my blood and DNA and every fucking scientific thing in-between. If I wasn't in the bath then I was locked up in a cage with a shock collar to keep me feral."

"I do not sense any metal from you," Erik frowned. 

"It hasn't happened yet," Logan said gruffly, his jaw clicking as he clenched it. "But it will."

"May I see what they are now?" 

He didn't see what harm it would do. Logan let the claws slide out, three long bones sharpened at their tips. 

"Lot more intimidating when they're metal," he joked. 

Erik's hand stopped before they touched, a question in his gaze when their eyes locked. Logan gave a minute nod of his head, taking the stupid risk further. It was shockingly tender, the way the other mutant glided his fingers along the bones. 

The intimacy should've hit Logan sooner, which made it that much harder of a landing to his chest when it did. He didn't make it a habit of letting people touch him, let alone his claws. Erik was the last person he would have done it for up until Trask's sentinels. 

Erik's brows pinched together, a wet layer making his eyes glisten in a more vulnerable light. 

"I thought the speedster showing up was an illusion initially," Erik confessed, quiet like before. He swallowed thickly and lifted his gaze to Logan's. "I've...had many of those over the years." 

"Mind plays tricks," Logan nodded slightly, "no one's there to talk to you. Head fills in the empty space." 

"I knew he said our desires weren't the same." Erik looked stricken at the memory. "But Charles was the only one I thought--After all we did, I believed he would still show some mercy to me." 

Logan's growl was sudden and made them both jerk away. He retracted his claws and shifted away slightly, watching the way some of Erik's guard started to climb back up. Shit, he didn't mean for that to happen. 

It was instinct -- which one, he had no goddamn clue -- that had Logan grabbing his shoulder. Erik went rigid beneath the touch and had him ready to pull back, but then it all just...diminished. He went slack under Logan's grip, leaning into it.

Isolation. It makes a person crave the simplest of things. 

He made a point of squeezing instead of pulling away, making Erik relax more against the bar. "The Professor I know from the future wouldn't have done that," Logan told the metal bender. "This one has spiraled into something, for a lack of a better or unoffensive word, pathetic. But you're safe now, Erik."

A wounded noise pulled itself out from Erik's throat. "We're never safe. Our kind will always be hunted and imprisoned. Look at your future."

"We're changing my future. It can be better. The Professor has never been wrong about that. The other you has wanted it, too." 

"Your versions of us truly believe we are capable of fixing it? You think this can all go away?"

Logan cautiously took it a step further, slipping his hand up to the crook of Erik's neck and squeezing again. Erik's eyes sharpened, two intense blue orbs that were giving Logan's words his undivided attention. His body seemed to gravitate closer to Logan, who hadn't realized how close he was leaning either.

"I wouldn't be here otherwise. But it can only happen if we all do it  _ together _ , bub."

"I thought we were enemies once, in your future," Erik replied. "Was Charles able to make you believe in the good of others so easily?"

"Not easily," Logan answered, "and I only see it when it really exists." 

Logan didn't anticipate where this could go. There wasn't a future where he was so easily able to believe it. 

The past is showing a lot of things that can change, isn't it? 

Their lips didn't come together softly. Erik was vulnerable but never soft. It was rough but unhurried, the other mutant seeking out the comfort that wasn't afforded to him for ten years. Logan, oddly, didn't feel any wrongness in it. He let his own guard down and now he couldn't bring it back up. He was finding that he didn't want to. 

They shifted closer, Logan's other hand moving to press firmly against Erik's back in encouragement. Erik breathed shakily, pressing forward eagerly at the invitation. For one of those rare times, he trusted the metal bender when his arms came around him, hands gripping at the back of Logan's shirt. 

"Easy," Logan murmured, squeezing the back of Erik's neck to keep him steady in the moment. "It's okay, Erik." 

He kissed Erik again, keeping it unhurried. They didn't need more, it's not what either of them was looking for. For Erik, this was making sure he was present and not alone. Logan could do that better than talking out their feelings all night. 

"Why don't we move this somewhere a lot more comfortable for the both of us?" Logan suggested, staying in Erik's space, keeping the solid assurance that the man needed. He didn't fight when Logan started walking them towards the bed, looking lost like he's never seen Erik be before. 

They laid down on the bed, the firm support of a real mattress being another sensation that Erik had to carefully process. Logan waited it out, familiar with the adjustment himself. That little mat of a bed wasn't designed for comfort. Once Erik's attention came back to him, Logan positioned Erik so that the leaner body was curled against his. 

"How come it wasn't I who you were allied with before, in your future?" Erik asked.

"You wanted to use a kid I cared about to turn all the humans in the world into mutants. I couldn't let you do that, to her or them."

"I cannot...imagine using one of our own kind unless they wished it," Erik frowned.

No one sees themself become the villain. Erik's motivations were twisted versions of preservation and justice. "Time makes people more willing to do the extreme. We become what we fear."

"But, if we change Trask's succession...that can change as well, couldn't it?"

"Stupid as it sounds, bub, that's the hope."

If it didn't, then Logan would be coming back to a different fractured home. Could this set Magneto on the better path sooner? Or would it only ever take a threat like the sentinels?

"Hope has not been a good friend to me," Erik told him. When Logan met his gaze, there still managed to be some there.

"It's not exactly the best of friends to many of us," Logan answered dryly. 

Logan held him like he held Rogue when they'd first come around to the school, the difference being that this time there were layers of sheets to protect him from anyone absorbing his powers and the exchange of kisses. 

They stayed like this all night; Erik put at ease enough to fall asleep while Logan held on to his wakefulness a little longer. When the morning came, they hadn't moved away from each other. There was something they left unspoken as Logan left the metal bender's room but was clear in the way they stayed close once their group came together in the lobby. 

Neither of them said anything at Charles' suspicion or Hank's confusion. But when their hands brushed on the walk outside and Erik pressed into Logan's side in the cab, they were both calm and grounded. 

Logan didn't know what  _ this _ development meant for his future. He didn't know what it would mean for Erik when his consciousness is gone from this body. 

It's a tentative connection that they've made. A trust that neither of them was used to placing in others. 

Logan took it as a sign that maybe this plan will be able to work in the end. 


End file.
